But if you've already been admitted to GULC/Cornell and gotten 30k from Illinois this early in the cycle, I would expect someone with those numbers to be get MVP (which would be better than GULC/Cornell).

EDIT: Now that I see you are 3.5/172, you have a shot at CCN and will get some of MVP. If you want biglaw then take CCN at sticker or MVP at sticker if you don't land CCN. You needn't consider GULC/Cornell/Illinois.

But if you've already been admitted to GULC/Cornell and gotten 30k from Illinois this early in the cycle, I would expect someone with those numbers to be get MVP (which would be better than GULC/Cornell).

EDIT: Now that I see you are 3.5/172, you have a shot at CCN and will get some of MVP. If you want biglaw then take CCN at sticker or MVP at sticker if you don't land CCN. You needn't consider GULC/Cornell/Illinois.

If you're not then it gets more complicated. Are you an Illinois resident? If not then you are still ponying up $90k worth of debt over 3 years (though if you are, it's only about $70k). To me, $90k is still a shit ton of debt and it would suck to have to pay that off with a $60k salary if you miss out on biglaw (which going to Illinois means you have a pretty high chance of missing out on biglaw). Personally, unless you can minimize your debt to something under $60k or so, I think that going for the best possible school is the right option, no matter the debt.

bk1 wrote:My point is that, with law salaries being bimodal, the only way somebody is paying off 6 figures of debt in any sort of reasonable amount of time is either through biglaw or through LRAP(/IBR). 160k or LRAP is going to allow you to pay off sticker price in 10 years or so whereas with a 60k position that seems almost impossible. Even if you pay only half of the full COA, 100k or so, a 60k position doesn't seem to set you up that well for that either. Also, if you don't land a job at all it's going to suck whether your debt is 200k or 50k. I haven't done exact loan repayment calculations but am I wrong that 100k initial debt for someone making 60k is still very oppressive?

This got me thinking that once you hit some number, probably around 6 figures, any extra debt is worthwhile if it increases your chances at biglaw or PI with a good LRAP. Because of the bimodal salary distribution, 200k debt is definitely worth taking on compared to 150k debt or even 100k debt if there is a decent gain in job prospects. To me this means that CCN at sticker is better than a half tuition (20k/year) at MVP. MVP at sticker is better than a half tuition (20k/year) at GULC/Cornell/T20. Heck, one tier of job prospects down, such as CCN down to MVP, might not even be worth 30k/year considering at 30k/year your COA can still be pretty close to 90-100k.